MF-1 Sailor Boy

There will always be an occasion when the misinformed or misled will purchase a supposedly rare 130 Euro pigs ear with the hopes that it is a rare silk purse. Since I don't fall into either category, I'll pass. If someone want's the Plain-Jane MF-1 to actually use, they are typically sold for $30-49 USD, and no amount of extra printing ink is going to improve their quality... which normally sets at 1 star. Mere decorations on a basic tool does nothing for me, and there are other brand new alternatives for 35mm pocket film cameras if anyone really wants to use them to shoot real film.

There's is one thing with these showing up that now has me curious. When Kyocera dissolved Yashica as an ongoing brand, the only asset they sold - at least from my recollection of their announcement - was simply the Yashica brand name. They sold no parts, new or old product designs, production machinery or real estate properties, or assigned supplier/vendor contracts, or copyright or trademarks or patents. I would assume that the 'Sailor Boy' design was a registered trademark at some point, but I don't have access to - or know how to search on - the Japanese (or H.K. or China) equivalent to the USPTO search site to see if anyone still has an active or new registration.

The quick search I just ran for the US only has Yashica entries for 'Text' trademarks, so no images were ever registered here - just the "Yashica" branded text markings.